Dr. Anthony Fauci disavowed a longtime senior adviser during a congressional hearing on June 3, saying the official had violated federal rules by using personal email for official business and editing the press release of a government grantee.
“I knew nothing of Dr. Morens’s actions regarding Dr. Daszak, EcoHealth, or his emails,” Dr. Fauci said. “It is important to point out for the record that, despite his title, and even though he was helpful to me in writing scientific papers, Dr. Morens was not an adviser to me on institute policy or other substantive issues.”
Dr. Fauci also said that Dr. Morens didn’t take part in regular meetings of NIAID leadership or of his immediate staff before agreeing that Dr. Morens violated federal rules by editing an EcoHealth statement, reaching out to the EcoHealth board on behalf of Mr. Daszak, and using personal email for official business.
Dr. Morens often spoke of talking with Dr. Fauci, including writing after the government paused the primary EcoHealth grant: “Peter, from Tony’s numerous recent comments to me, they are trying to protect you.”
“I never spoke about protecting him,” Dr. Fauci said. “I don’t know where he got that, but that’s not true.”
In another missive, Dr. Morens wrote: “I forgot to say there is no worry about FOIAs. I can either send stuff to Tony on his private gmail, or hand it to him at work or at his house. He is too smart to let colleagues send him stuff that could cause trouble.”
Dr. Fauci said he might have spoken to Dr. Morens over personal email addresses about chapters they write for medical books.
“I do not do government business on my private email,” he said.
“These men were among your most senior and trusted staff,” Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) said, pointing to email and calendar records.
“It is hard to believe that all of this occurred without your knowledge and/or approval.”
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) said the actions showed a “troubling pattern of behavior from your inner circle.”
Democrats largely expressed support for Dr. Fauci and condemned what they described as GOP attacks against him.
“You and our top scientists did everything you could to keep Americans safe during the deadly days of COVID-19,” Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) said.
“The vast majority of Americans appreciate your work over the years.”
Fauci Denies Trying to Suppress Lab Leak Theory
Dr. Fauci participated in a phone call on Feb. 1, 2020, that involved a number of outside scientists. Some of these scientists went on to author a paper stating that their analyses “clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.”Dr. Fauci promoted the paper from the White House podium, contending that it showed the process for COVID-19 “is totally consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human.” He said he couldn’t remember who wrote the paper.
Kristian Andersen, one of the authors, said in an email acquired by the committee that Dr. Fauci “prompted” the paper, while co-authors mentioned in other messages that Jeremy Farrar, who first informed Dr. Fauci about COVID-19, helped edit the paper. Neither Dr. Fauci nor Mr. Farrar is credited.
Mr. Andersen, who initially said that COVID-19 looked engineered, went on to receive millions of dollars in funding from NIAID.
“The accusation being circulated that I influenced these scientists to change their minds by bribing them with millions of dollars in grant money is absolutely false and simply preposterous. I had no input into the content of the published paper,” Dr. Fauci said in opening remarks on June 3.
After the call, he said, “it was decided that several participants would more carefully examine the genomic sequence.” They ended up concluding that “the most likely scenario was the spillover from an animal reservoir” and “they appropriately published their opinion in the peer reviewed literature.”
Dr. Fauci said he kept an open mind as to the origin of COVID-19, which to date is still undetermined.
